The Veg Blog

Nell On Earth: An interview with Nell Newman, creator of Newman’s Own Organics

An enlightening interview on Grist.com about the business of organics, but what’s up with her answer to “are you vegetarian?”:

I was a vegetarian for three years as a kid. Now I am a “flexitarian.” My friends say it’s a PC name for hypocrite. I eat a little bit of everything. Ninety percent of what I eat is organic, and any meat I buy is organic, but when I go out to dinner, I don’t always investigate the ingredients. I don’t say no when I go to a friend’s for dinner and they’ve prepared a non-organic meal.

Isn’t she answering two totally separate questions there?

That aside, Nell’s got some interesting things to say about big business/mainstream organics:

Oh, it’s good that someone’s mainstreaming this industry. Adopting big-business practices is one thing, and adopting agribusiness practices that would dilute the meaning of organic is another. On the whole, I think we’re doing a pretty good job of preserving the integrity of organic foods.

As for business practices, you have to be realistic. Even running a small organics company, I’ve got constraints. I would love to not have to ship anything and use nasty packaging, but you know what, that’s not a reality. You want to do everything regionally, and just support local small farmers regionally, and then you find out there are no good pretzel manufacturers anywhere on the West Coast, so you have to make your pretzels on the East Coast and ship them. So you do as best you can, but most of the time, it’s difficult to have those high ideals and stick to them, in terms of how you produce stuff. People would love us to put our pretzels in wax paper, but would they really like it when they bought a stale pretzel? It’s a very difficult balance.

Red Bamboo
140 W 4th St / New York, NY
Asian/Soul Food fusion (vegetarian, mostly vegan)

Seriously… “Asian/Soul Food Fusion?” But let me tell you: it works.

Red Bamboo was started by the son of the owner of Vegetarian Paradise just down the block (a restaurant that is the favorite of reggae singer Tony Rebel when he’s in town). Their menu is heavy on the mock meat, including many variations of mock fish dishes ranging from Cajun Fried Shrimp to Maryland Fried Scallops.

Before heading to Red Bamboo, I stopped by Moo Shoes, where I was given a very explicit recommendation: “Have the chicken parmesan. And, trust me, don’t skip dessert.”

The chicken parmesan lunch platter ($7.95) gives you a number of appetizer options. I went with the Jerk Spiced Seitan on a skewer. Very, very tasty with just enough spice to deliver a kick but avoid the runny-nose syndrome I get with ultra-spicy foods. The main course, though, was the piece de resistance.

Holy freaking crap.

Allow me to reiterate, slightly louder: HOLY FREAKING CRAP.

Perhaps one of the most “real” tasting mock meat dishes I’ve ever had, this chicken had the consistency and flavor of the best white meat chicken I’d ever eaten. The sauce was delicious and the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses (both vegan, though you can also get them in dairy and soy-cheese-with-casein versions… but trust me, you don’t need to) were melty and flavorful. I literally wimpered as I took the first bite. It was that good.

I had a cranberry-orange juice to drink, which was fine.

After I finished the main part of my meal, I was ready for dessert. After all, I was told not to skip it by the MooShoes girl. I had to order it, right? Unfortunately, their cakes had not yet arrived for the day, so I was stuck with the soy ice cream. But, it was really good soy ice cream. I had the mint chocolate chip—which was actually green!—and definitely hit the spot. The “one scoop” serving was actually closer to three scoops.

As I finished off my ice cream, the cakes were delivered. I started drooling even though my stomach was definitely full. So, I ordered a piece of Oreo Cheesecake (vegan, of course) to go and split it the following night with Huyen. Ain’t I nice?

The cheesecake was damn fine and right up there with the one I had from the Chicago Diner. Perfection.

As if you couldn’t guess, I highly recommend Red Bamboo. Next visit to New York, I’m going to go back and try out some of their fake fish. And another dessert, of course.

I’m going to be in the Big Apple next week for a few days. Can I tell you that I’m seriously excited? This is my first time in NY in four years, which is entirely too long between visits. While I’m pretty booked up for the trip and while I do have a pretty good idea of where I’d like to eat, can anyone suggest any veggie places in New York that I’ve got to try?

I may also have time for a small meetup, if anyone’s interested.

(As a side note, if you’re into reggae, you’ll definitely want to come to B.B. King’s on Monday the 15th. Or, if you’ve got some extra dough, the Nassau Coliseum on the 14th.)

Admit it: when was the last time you ate Brussels sprouts? I like the darn things (always have), but I still haven’t had them in the last four years that I can remember. But thanks to this San Francisco Chronicle article, I’m anxious to get back on the Brussels bandwagon.

“People have committed war crimes against Brussels sprouts, probably all of them on Thanksgiving Day” …

Worthy of prosecution: putting Brussels sprouts in an aluminum pot and “cooking them for three years,” says Downing. “You get the Black Sea effect.” The dark, disgusting water comes from sulfur compounds in the vegetable reacting with the metal. Not pretty.

So read up on how to slice ‘em and shave ‘em for sprouts the way you’ve never had them before.

I’ve decided to bring together some information about Vitamin D-enhanced orange juice from various companies. I’m going to do so in this post. I’ll be writing to various orange juice manufacturers to find out where the vitamin D in their juice comes from. Results will be accumulated here.

Tropicana
Non-animal derived

Hello Ryan:

Thank you for visiting the Tropicana Website. We are happy to answer your questions.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that aids in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus from food. Vitamin D functions to raise the blood levels of calcium and phosphorus and is part of a large group of bone-making and bone-maintaining nutrients and other compounds. Some vitamin D is made in the body when skin is exposed to sunlight. The form of vitamin D added to Tropicana products is vitamin D3. It is a synthetic powder and is the same form that is added to milk. Our source of vitamin D is not derived from an animal and the product is kosher certified.

We hope this information is helpful.

Judy

Minute Maid
Animal derived

Thank you for contacting Coca-Cola North America, Mr. MacMichael. We appreciate your interest in our brands.

Our Vitamin D is actually made in a process similar to how your own body makes Vitamin D. Your skin naturally makes a cholesterol called 7-dehydrocholesterol. When you go out into the sunlight, the sun irradiates your skin and this 7-dehydrocholesterol is converted into vitamin D3.

Vitamin D used in Minute Maid juice comes from isolating the cholesterol component from lanolin. Cholesterol is then converted to 7-dehydrocholesterol, which when activated by ultra-violet irradiation and purified this component becomes Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).

We hope this information is helpful. Should you have additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Bonnie
Industry and Consumer Affairs

I was wondering if the Vitamin D3 in Tropicana’s orange juice was animal derived or not, so I wrote to them (sometimes D3 is derived from lanolin). Good idea, me! Their response has been moved to this post.

I suggested they add the information to their FAQ.

I’m currently contacting other OJ manufacturers to find out similar information. I will report back. I promise!